Reviews

The Czech Metropolis has become after 1989 a favorite destination of architects abroad.

1.Dancing House
Can’t stress enough how good Dancing House is. The masterpiece of Vlado Milunic and Frank Ghery is indeed a jewel, accompanying a line from 19th century. When build, people were shocked, as this could very well have been the first innovative building after years of communist grayness.

2.Golden Angel
Smichov was traditionally an industrial quarter typical with its black-scale facades. When the factories went to the other world, Andel became one of the most rush crossroads in Prague, with business and shopping centre by Jena Nouvel.

The rest of the Article at Imported Architecture

This year in February, the assembly of Skoda and Volkswagen cars in Russia was launched, in the newly build line by the city Kaluga, about 100km SW from Moscow.

Skoda cars sold in Russia are completed in Russia. The process looks like this: components are imported in containers from the original factory in Mlada Boleslav to Russian Kaluga. They are already made into units, interiors with decking, machines, wheel frames.

The sides have agreed that 30 months since the assembly has started the industries will either grow to complete fabric, constructing everything from the first screw, or they will have to pay very hig duty.

According to Czech Etymologists, most of the 141 species of day butterflies, who range in the Czech Republic, live in the capital or its close surroundings. And some species, like Eastern Baton Blue or Grayling even have their last hopeful populations.

The explanation of Entomologists is the capital city of Prague lies on a very diverse geological and geographical territory; “In Prague, a uniquely rich biotope concentrates, thus it is logical, that the world of insects comes in many varieties.”

High number of butterfly species on the area of Prague the Etymologist explain there are enclaves of almost untouched areas, like Divoka Sarka or Sance. The capital has another advantage – a low interest of farmers for cultivation. The soil is not than polluted by pesticides or other chemicals. Source: LN

To jump into Vltava river during those hot summer days is something that comes into a lot of minds. The water doesn’t look that bad, but the instinct of self-preservation warns it doesn’t have to be completely safe. Or is it?

The Prague newspaper Denik investigated, whether is it safe, Zdena Staskova from the Hygiene station of Prague said: ”According to our measuring, the water in Vltava is not suitable for swimming. But- it is probable that 90 out of 100 wouldn’t have any problems from it.”

Clearly, those who should avoid swimming in Vltava are those sensitive to allergies and with sensitive mucosa. If anyone swallows some Vltava water in Prague, there may be some tummy sickness. At least one should take a shower afterwards.

There is enough of those, who don’t care about water quality and go to swim anyways. A lot of them group at Smichov Beach, even more at Zlute lazne, which have showers, bars, newly also a nudist beach.

To shop clothes and shoes in Prague is now even more pleasurable, as summer sales are now on. Probably almost anybody likes to get, at least from time to time, some new and lovely piece of clothing or a pair of shoes. And if you can save some money while buying that, the pleasure is usually even higher. Now you can get pieces of collections from spring/summer season 2008 with discounts which range from 50% to 70%.

Luxorious shops, like Gucci in Prague, also see the beauty of summer sales, so it is possible to get a piece of clothing that would normally be too expensive. In the most shops, sales just started recently, so they now have “just“ 50% discount, well… but to get the desired item for half price sounds good. And you still have quite wide range of choices. Or you can wait for bigger discounts, which usually enable you to get items with a 70% discount, but then the range is usually already quite limited. Continue Reading

The Smichov Bank of Vltava has a new layer of nice white sand and wooden floors for tables were laid yesterday. The place is coming back to life again. For the fourth time, it will be possible to take a seat, have a drink and sunbathe or chat under an umbrella, in the very centre of Prague.

The Smichov Beach is opened everyday since 10 to 22 hours until the half of September. The full capacity of the place is about five hundred people, so no wonder the place with a view of Vysehrad and Podskali hosted about 40 thousand people last year.

The all-day ticket to the beach is 50czk, small kids for free. There will be concerts of various groups and thematic evenings focused e.g. on mediterranean cuisine. There is a beach volleyball field, of course, you can play petanque. The place is sweet.

Yummy yummy! When I was searching the web for a place, where I could invite my foreign friends for a quality meal, I found this webpage, and I can’t do otherwise than really recommend.

The web www.tripfilms.com offers not just reviews of Prague restaurant, but various information served lightly with the precision of the BBC, yet in the relaxed Internet way.

The Prague restaurants he visits:

Lehka Hlava, Borsov 2

Radost FX, Belehradska 120

Kampa Park, Na Kampe 8b

Maly Buddha, Uvoz 46

Sure, there are also other web pages providing information about Prague Restaurants. For example http://www.prague.net/eat-and-drink gives an overview on the way of eating and drinking in the Czech Republic in general, and also recommends some good spots.

Clothes of the future are tailored (or build?) in the Czech Republic, in a little factory in Pilsen, the company name is Applycon and they offer constructing clothes enabling listening music, telephoning, filming via in-build camera, sturdy jackets with solar panels, lights, GPS antenna, and all kinds of sensors. The clothes they made are used by rescue workers, refineries, patients in hospitals and extreme sportsmen.

To create ‘intelligent textiles’ is still a quite unique job in the world. The series of snowboard clothes created for O’Neill was a great success in the world. Among the first customers were companies from fashion and entertainment industry. Applycon now expands and wants to create clothes and uniforms for demanding occupations. They came with an innovation this year – a textile keyboard on a sleeve.

Kofola is a carbonated soft drink produced in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is the principal rival of Coca-Cola and Pepsi on the two markets.

The soft drink named Kofola was introduced in 1962, and it survived until now, being still popular. In 2002 they launched a a successful media campaign aimed at a young and hip audience based on the slogan “Když ji miluješ, není co řešit. / Keď ju miluješ, nie je čo riešiť.” (“If/When you love it/her nothing else matters.”) and since then, their sales steadily increase. The public image of Kofola is associated with being sexy by untypical way (picture).

Now, Kofola comes with a light version, called “Kofola Bez” (Kofola Without). The name is ambiguous, as the most popular Kofola campagin theme was nude beach.

Price and packages will be the same, the question is if it will be sold in those 50-litre kegs, from which they traditionally tap you one in a pub across the country.

The main part of Bohemian Carnivale took place this weekend. Among few hundreds of participants stood out original masks from Sardinia, but the actors on stilts stood out even higher.

What else was possible to see? Masks, clowns, jugglers, allegorical baby-carriages, drummers and motorbikes. Hundreds of people walked with the parade, or stopped at the Old Town Square and watched the fun.

The theme of this second year of Bohemian Carnivale is metamorphosis and everything connected to it. People change, or morph, into something they want.

Into the historic sights, which are governed by the Prague Information Service (PIS), were visited by 18 % more visitors than in the year 2006. That makes the total of sightseers 1,3 million people.

The speaker of PIS Dagmar Holubova informed: “There were definitely more visitors of sights, more tourists came to our information centers, but we also got more hits of our web pages (www.pis.cz) – 3,85 million.

The largest interest from Prague Sights arouses traditionally Old Town City Hall at Old Town Square, which attracted 432 500 visitors last year.

Do you have kids in Prague ? Don’t know where to go? The Czech community of Gender Studies has labeled twelve from enterprises located at Prague 1 with their ‘Family Friendly Enterprise’ sticker.

From the announcement it’s clear that to live normally with kids is not an easy task; “I have two kids and I know how hard it is to move with a baby coach in Prague. How a person appreciates any place, where one can feel welcomed with kids, and where are no obstacles.” The founder of action and a deputy of Prague 2 Michaela Marks-Tomin wrote. Her people looked for baby-corners, children menus, nappies changing tables at the WCs, non-smoking environment, whether it is possible to get inside with a carriage and whether they have a baby chair. The list of places is here

“The year 2007 was a record-breaking one. Nobody have seen such success. The exhibition ‘Lovci mamutu’ (mammoth hunters), showing originals of the Bohemia’s oldest settlement of men, was visited by more than 600 thousands visitors.” said the National Museum Director.

The exhibition that is the most visited at the moment, is called ‘Albrecht Valdstein’ and there are queues every day at the Valdstejnska Jizdarna, where it takes place. It is not only the most visited exhibition, but also the biggest one.

People in Prague showed enormous interest in the Devil’s bible. To see it in the super-modern safe-deposit in Prague Klementinum came 35 thousands already, the exhibition was even prolonged, what’s more, the speaker of the national library announced that they are negotiating further prolongation.

The last record for a place which offers everyday exhibition of animals live: Prague Zoo. It is incredible how much it blossomed under the lead of Petr Fejk ; the year 2007 brought 1,25 million people there.

Based on: MF Dnes

If you plan to spend the New Year’s Eve in Prague, and you plan to spend it outdoors, there are going to be many fireworks. I’ll skip the part where we warn you how dangerous it is bla bla and give you the numbers of injured, bla bla, and get to the part where I tell you – the place where you will definitely see many people shooting fireworks, that often fall back to the crowd to explode, is Old Town Square.

Wenceslas Square will be full of people, as there will be the free show broadcasted live on Czech TV station Nova. A big stage will be built near the statue of St. Wenceslas. The place will be full of fireworks, too.

If you want to enjoy a view of fireworks, take some drink with you and find some perch. I remember Vysehrad worked quite well for us. Of course, not all of us want to be outdoors; for you we have some New Year’s Eve tips. And PS: Karlovy Lazne is the place where it may be the best to spend the night, if you like disco music. Happy new year!

Every time, an independent movie becomes famous, the critics talk about a miracle. Is it so in the case of Once? Let’s have a look into. Once is a 2006 Irish musical film written and directed by John Carney. Set in Dublin, it stars musicians Glen Hansard (of popular Irish rock band The Frames) and Markéta Irglová, a fictional Czech emigrant, as struggling musicians.

Irglova’s Czech character stays at the “wild east” definition, I mean the way western film makers see us, and probably always will. One example for all – she is dressed like a Bulgarian beggar from 19th century. But her screen performance is just sweet. The same way we can talk about Hansard – every time he looks, sings, talks, he is just sweet. But the film doesn’t stand on acting – it stands and falls with music, which is just great.

I would recommend the film for all those who are tired by movies, which will put you into a never ending spiral, or that which will make you feel guilty, or simply those genre simplifications – Once is a clean, sweet and poetic movie, that doesn’t pretend anything. I shouldn’t say it here, but it is also nice to see a Czech actress in other than an ‘adult’ movie.

Recently published analysis of regional differences in the Czech Republic revealed an interesting fact – Prague is, year by year, more different from the rest of the country. The numbers are so different, they have to be filed separately, as it would blur the republic average.

For example – Prague citizens have the most advanced cars from the whole country, every second household is connected to the Internet and one third of citizens of Prague have finished higher or university education.

Ales Michl, analyst of Raiffeisenbank stated:

“Prague is unique compared to other metropolises, located east from Prague – i.e. Bratislava or Budapest. There, the differences among the capital and the rest of the country aren’t so noticeable. Prague is so much more like Paris, London of Frankfurt.”

The metropolis is first also in the quality and availability of health care, so here is 15,7 percent of seniors older 65 years, meanwhile the republic average is 14,4 percent. Prague has population of 1,198,094. The numbers of Prague citizens are getting higher every year, and more than 70% of newcomers are Ukrainians, Russians and Vietnamese. Those cover some of the low paid jobs, but surprisingly there is still over-supply of such positions.

Concerning salaries; the average is 26 134 CZK (933€), which can sound meager compared to the average in i.e Britain (2931€), but the salary in Prague is still about 5196 CZK (179€) higher than the national average.

A dog restaurant? Do you mean for dogs or offering dogs? The answer is b. The restaurant offers German shepherd steak with dumplings and cream sauce, Sausage dog on cranberries, or grilled Labrador on garlic. It opens soon in the Czech Republic second largest city Brno. Wonder what the prices are? From 259 CZK (8,6 €) for Chivava starter, to 999 CZK (33 €) for fifty grams of Yorkshire delicacy.

Do you feel sick already? Do you even feel like suing? You don’t have to. This time it is just an Internet project of an imaginary restaurant, that should demonstrate it is not possible to prioritize some animals on account of others. According to its author (one of them) Ales Leznar:

“We buy tidy packages with anonymous carcasses in supermarkets, but if it was saying ‘neighbor’s Max’, hardly anybody would buy it. If humanity wants a really fair world, they should reduce or abandon meat consumption”

It is really a project that should provoke discussions. However on the web www.DogHeaven.cz it wouldn’t seem so – it is even decorated with advertisements like ‘Invite your Asian business partner to lunch’ or ‘Visit dog meat festival’. But soon the manifesto appears – this is an appeal on human hypocrisy, which looks down upon maltreatment of pets, but tolerates mass meat-works.

Based on jih,miš, Lidove Noviny

Cirque du Soleil (French for “Circus of the Sun”), an entertainment empire based in Montreal, Canada, performed in Prague this weekend. Sazka Arena hosted about eight thousands of people. The performed piece was Delirium; ‘a multifaceted event of unprecedented proportion featuring a state-of-the-art mix of music & stunning acrobatics infused with multimedia & awe-inspiring gigantic visuals.’

Cirque du Soleil ranks among so called ‘Cirque Nouveau / New Circus’, which is a theatre genre, connecting locomotive art, street theatre, dance, music, puppet shows and cirque (without animals).

No ring and no animals helped to make Cirque du Soleil the modern circus as it is described today. Each show is a synthesis of circus styles from around the world and has its own central theme and storyline, which brings the audience into the performance by having no curtains. It is accompanied by continuous live music and performers changing the props. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s the Cirque expanded rapidly and went from one show with 73 employees in 1984 to currently 3,500 employees from over 40 countries, doing fifteen shows, touring every continent and having an estimated annual revenue exceeding $600 million USD.

Palladium is located in Prague, Namesti Republiky square (at a metro station of the same name). It opens on 25th October 2007 and customers can start shopping at 5 p.m. There are two hundred shops to be opened gradually. The biggest supply is of designer boutiques offering fashion and shoes.

New brands are going to enter the Czech market, and to have their first shops here. Those are i.e. Adams Kids, Mothercare and Italy’s fashion retailer Conbipel. While Palladium is expected to profit from its advantageous location in the city center, (just a minute from Prague’s shopping street Na Prikopech) the customers will have to expect the prices to reflect the center position. Rents at this location are one of the biggest in the Czech Republic.

On 22th October 2007, Gwen Stefani made her solo performance in Prague for the last time, as she is planning a comeback to her group No Doubt, after getting back to the USA.

Not just by her voice, but also by her direct show she just overpowered her Czech fans. Just a few empty seats and the huge Sazka Arena of Prague would be completely sold out. She started her performance by getting out of a golden cage in a ‘custodial dress’, and singing the song that gave name to the whole tour: The Sweet Escape.

Gwen Stefani (1969), is an American singer, songwriter, fashion designer and occasional actress. Stefani debuted in 1992 as the frontwoman of the third wave ska band No Doubt, whose 1995 album Tragic Kingdom propelled them to stardom, selling sixteen million copies worldwide.

Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was primarily inspired by music of the 1980s, taking Stefani’s work further into pop, R&B, and dance music, and enjoyed international success with sales of over seven million. The album’s third single “Hollaback Girl” became the first U.S. digital download to sell one million copies.